Welcome New Students!

Welcome to another exciting year at Rochester Institute of Technology. You definitely want to join the RIT Model Railroad Club. Why? First, we are building a large HO scale model railroad that includes parts of Rochester, including famous landmarks like High Falls and Nick Tahou's!

We'll show you how to build realistic scale models as we construct our cities and towns along the railroad. Trees and hillsides, roads and rivers, houses and stores and factories, too. Every kind of scene imaginable from city to country.

Our trains use a sophisticated digital command control system that allows us to control everything from trains to switches and signals. We can write our own custom software interface using Java. There's also electronic controls to design, and much more.

We also volunteer at the nearby R&GV Railroad Museum where we work on real full-size trains. We also like to go railfanning, take pictures, and ride trains whenever we can.

August 22 - New Student Club Fair and Open House

Look for our table in the Gordon Field House this Saturday from 12:00-4:00pm. You can also visit our model railroad in Room A420 in the lower level of the Student-Alumni Union (SAU). We're down the hall from the Ritzkeller and across from the Tech Crew offices.

August 25 - First Meeting: East Snacks, Run Trains

 Join us for snacks and trains! Run trains on our large HO scale model railroad, enjoy some snacks, and meet some of our other members. We promise the snacks will be tasty. We get started at 7:00pm, so come on down! We are located in Room A420 in the lower level of the SAU.

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April 25-26 Work Sessions

This will most likely be our last official work session for a while as we're getting ready to host an open house for Imagine RIT on May 2, followed by hosting the NFR NMRA regional convention on May 16.

 After constructing some supplemental support structure, Otto and Dave installed fascia at CP 373. The mainline and yard tracks in Niagara Falls were masked and painted. Nick D. and Dave polished the railheads so trains could once again operate through Niagara Falls (ballast will have to wait for another time).

Nick, Dave, and Alex swept and cleaned throughout the club room. Trains were packed away. The workbench was cleared and its surface saw the light of day, if only briefly.

 

 On Sunday, the fascia was primered and Otto cut and painted a stand-in for Route 104 to make the scene look a little more finished for the upcoming Open House.

Imagine RIT: Innovation and Creativity Festival is a campus-wide event that showcases the innovative and creative spirit of RIT students, faculty and staff. We will be hosting a special Open House on Saturday, May 2, from 10:00am to 4:00pm so that visitors can tour our expanded HO scale model railroad, the Rochester & Irondequoit Terminal! Trains will be running and club members will be available to tell you more about our club and our model railroad. See our progress and learn more about the hobby of model railroading. This event is FREE and open to the public! ALL ABOARD!!

April 18 Work Session

Work is starting to wind down as we prepare for Imagine RIT, the NMRA convention, and finals. Joe and Otto hung 8 more feet of fascia on the Rochester peninsula, Jimmy painted rails in Niagara Food Terminal, Alex helped clean up, Matt sprinkled foam and fixed Joe's engine, Charles installed another throttle jack and did some other useful stuff. Otto later worked on his kitbash of the Walthers Grocery Terminal to make up one of the buildings in Niagara Food Terminal. Over the next couple of weeks, we will begin to wrap up whatever projects are left and start cleaning the room and staging trains for our upcoming open houses.